o him again
as long as I live!"

"Why, David Collins!" Polly's gentle voice was grieved and full
of astonishment.

The pale, blue-eyed lad seemed to have vanished, and another to be
standing there before her. His eyes, grown suddenly dark, set in
that flaming face, gave him a most unnatural look.

"I shall have to go--Aunt Jane says I must," she went on
sadly. "There's no other way."

"There would be another way, if I was a man!" he raged. "Oh, oh!
I wish I were! I wish I were!" he cried passionately; and
throwing himself upon the couch, face downward, his shoulders
shook with sobs.

Leonora bent her head on her arm, and wept silently.

Polly was endeavoring to soothe them both when Dr. Dudley came in.

Learning the cause of the tears, he remonstrated in his humorous
way, until Leonora smiled again; but David scorned such comfort,
refusing to move or to speak. Finally the Doctor started to
prepare the medicine he had come for, and the girls went upstairs,
Polly renewing to return directly after the noon meal.

Chapter XIV

Polly's "Anne Sisters"

Dr. Dudley's office was without an occupant when Polly peeped in.
The Doctor had not returned from dinner, and David had gone home
for the rest of the day. The little girl wandered about the room,
too full of vague dread to care for books, or even for the fine
collection of sea shells, which usually she never tired of. They
had been brought home from foreign shores by an old uncle of the
physician's, and now, ranged on their wide shelves, they gleamed
out from a farther corner of the office in all the delicate tints
of their wonderful family.

But to-day Polly passed them by with only a sigh, remembering the
happy times that she and David and Leonora had had in their close
company, now playing that they were mermaids, come to tell them
strange tales of the under-seas, now holding them to their ears,
to catch the mysterious, fascinating songs of the ocean which they
were always singing.

"Here already?" broke in the Doctor's pleasant voice. "I don't
believe they gave you much of a dinner."

"Yes, it was good; but I was n't hungry this noon," Polly
replied, with a wan little smile.

"You were in such a hurry to come down and see me that it took
away your appetite--was that it?" he laughed.

"I don't know," was the sober answer.

The Doctor glanced furtively at her face, and grew grave at once.
He squared some books and magazines upon the table,